I'm looking to buy a used EX1 on eBay. The seller doesn't know how to tell the firmware version and I don't know where to tell him to look. If the camera was bought about a year ago from B&H would that still be the old firmware?

Thanks for the help.

One easy way to check is to go into the shutter settings.
If you have BOTH 120 and 125 of a second it´s the latest firmware.
This at least applies to EX cameras in PAL land

He probably has old version. If you want them to check you need to go into the Maintenance menu: Press Cancel, Menu, and Select Wheel - all at the same time, > then scroll to IF (INFORMATION), > then check Version:.

I just had mine updated last December '08 and it reads: V1.11_0531.

Some variety of 1.11 is what you need to use Sony's external HD recorder, which means you can also use the less expensive SDHC cards in the MxS card reader.